Jane L Ferro Writer

Christmas ’96, new to WA and blissfully unfamiliar with December temperatures, we visited Exmouth. A tour took us over Cape Range, along Yardie Creek and down to the Ningaloo Reef. The wild beauty of the ranges was captivating— the fossils, caves, the wallabies peeking from the gorges around Yardie creek. However, when the offer came to snorkel on the reef, I declined. I was pregnant, a poor swimmer, could only manage a sedate ‘granny breastroke’ and would be way out of my comfort zone. The tour guide listened patiently and then insisted I do it anyway, offering to hold my hand throughout. And thus I plunged, or rather floated, into that ‘other world’, that makes up the largest part of our precious planet.
And I hardly knew where to look first. Bright little fish parted before me like flakes in a snow globe and beneath and around them a myriad of other species. Parrot fish, reef sharks, spotted rays, giant clams with dark velveteen bodies and solemn looking turtles. Too many species to name, to know. And then the coral itself. An underwater bouquet of cabbage, staghorn, plate, brain, golf ball et al. I was stunned by how bountiful, beautiful and fragile it all was.
We revisited several times over the next decade, but recently returning after a gap of fourteen years, only that last descriptor of the reef comes immediately to mind. Sadly, I’ve now seen for myself what constant rising sea temperatures can do and it’s ugly. There are still pockets of great beauty there, especially if you go further out where the water is cooler. And yes, I know if it cools down sufficiently before the next spawning, then the coral can revive. However, the sea is still unseasonably warm, a rumoured 31 degrees one day last week, and the once wild abundance in places like Turquoise Bay is no more. What remains is a pale remnant of what we saw on that first visit nearly 30 years ago.
I feel incredibly saddened by this, but angry too. Angry that what we are leaving for our grandchildren is the barest scraps of our experiences. Angry that governments know and do nothing. Angry that, in fact, we humans continue to perpetrate this crisis. Please act, petition and vote to change this.